QuickTake:

A vacant big-box retail space on Echo Hollow Road will see a $3.9 million renovation to make way for the first Eugene location of the national chain craft store.

This story was updated to include comments from Hobby Lobby.

Hobby Lobby is coming to west Eugene.

Echo Hollow Properties LLC, the owner of the single-story commercial retail space at 1970 Echo Hollow Road in the Bethel neighborhood, applied for a city permit to renovate the building late last month, listing the national chain craft store Hobby Lobby as the incoming tenant.

A Hobby Lobby spokesperson on Monday, May 4, confirmed to Lookout Eugene-Springfield that the company signed a lease for the space and estimates opening in early 2027. The company has not yet formally announced the new Eugene location.

The city of Eugene is reviewing the permit application, as of April 30. The space in the Echo Hollow Shopping Center, first built in 1979, was the home of a Rite Aid and Big Lots department store before they closed in June and in 2024, respectively. 

Andy Storment — the managing director of private equity firm McKenzie Capital and the vice chair of Summit Bank, as well as a University of Oregon trustee — controls the LLC that owns the land, state records show.

Permit documents outline plans to gut the building, removing interior walls, fixtures and building systems to prepare for a full redevelopment of the site. The permit estimates that the work to renovate 54,420 square feet of space will cost $3.9 million.

An aerial site plan of the new Hobby Lobby, per permit records.
A vicinity map of the new Hobby Lobby location, per permit records.

There is a Hobby Lobby in every U.S. state except for Alaska and Hawaii. The closest one to Eugene now is in Springfield’s Gateway Mall. 

The opening of the Springfield location in 2014, which coincided with the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that allowed Hobby Lobby to reduce insurance coverage for specific contraceptives like morning-after pills and IUDs, drew protest from reproductive rights advocates. 

The chain, owned by an evangelical Protestant family, has long been scrutinized for incorporating religious and political values into its business practices.

Grace Chinowsky graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in journalism. She served as metro editor, senior news editor and editor in chief of the university’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, and interned at CNN and MSNBC. Grace covers Eugene’s city government and the University of Oregon.